Violins

From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

Thomas Jefferson owned a number of violins over his lifetime. However, it is unclear how many and what happened to them over the years after his death. As Helen Cripe argues, Jefferson could have owned a smaller violin or kit that Nicholas Philip Trist received from Jefferson later on.[1] Researchers can say he had three: a violin he bought from Dr. Pasteur in 1768, one he bought from Sir John Randolph in 1775, and a small violin noted in 1788. There is a family legend that Jefferson saved a violin from the Shadwell fire in 1770. If that violin is different from the Pasteur violin, then it might be four.

After Jefferson's death, Joseph Coolidge sold two violins to London. The disposition of a single one of these instruments has never been documented and it is not known conclusively where any of them are located.

Primary Source References

1768 February 11. "Recd. of Charles Hudson for fiddlestrings, 7/6."[2]

1826 March 22. (Nicholas Philip Trist). "Mr. Jefferson said...At first I carried about with me that little instrument which I've given to Lewis...I have two [violins] that would fetch in London any price-one a violin of Sir John Randolph's, the other a Cremona more than a hundred years old."[19]